The Turbines

Encountering an object of this size is so uncommon to the human eye, it's difficult for us to comprehend just how large they are, even when viewing them in person. At One Energy, we like to use comparisons to relate the size of turbine parts to more common objects humans are familiar with. For example, the height of one of our wind turbines is 405 feet, which is roughly the size of a 40-story building. To put the parts of the overall system in perspective, the tower, nacelle, and hub all extend to a height of roughly 265 feet or 80 meters, which is similar to a 26-story building. The rotor that spins on top has blades that are about 140 feet long. So the entire "wing span" or rotor diameter is about 87 meters, creating a rotor swept areaof about 1.5 acres, the size of a standard football field. It's like looking at a 26-story building with a football field spinning on top.

Turbine Diagram

Scale of Turbine Parts

This photo of turbine parts laying on the ground waiting for assembly is a good indicator of scale. Notice the standard-size pick-up trucks and the person standing near the parts. If this person is 6 feet tall, their height is just around 8 percent of one tower section’s height.

Turbine Activity

Wind turbines, while not always active, are always monitored. Sometimes turbines are shut down for safety, operation, or maintenance. Additionally, since wind is the resource of energy in this instance, these wind turbines only operate when there is enough wind to produce electricity. The general range of wind speeds the turbines will produce within is 6 and 55 mph; the wind has to start at about 6 mph for the blades to start spinning and if it gets too windy at 55 mph, the turbines shut themselves down to reduce any unnecessary wear and tear on the parts. However, wind is not the only factor affecting the activity of the turbines. The turbines will not run during planned or unplanned maintenance and if there is a grid outage, our turbines will not be running to ensure the safety of the grid and of those operating on it.